WIRE WORM AND CLICK BEETLE. 
47 
I do not think that it would have more effect upon the Wireworm tlia 
superphosphates or other applications of equal value as fertilizers.— 
(Ralph Lowe, Sleaford, Lincolnshire.) 
* Barbersham Castle, Straffan, Ireland.—I took this farm twelve 
years ago ; it had principally been a grazing farm. A year afterwards 
I ploughed up a field of sixteen acres of old ley, and sowed it with 
sixteen bushels of Oats. It brairded very well, but very soon it began 
to show signs of the Wireworm, and I scarcely got back the seed. 
After that I sowed fine ground Rape meal, mixed with the seeds, and 
have never had anything like the loss I had before doing so. 
My mode of treatment has generally been to mix Oats and fine 
Rape meal together, put them in the hopper of Hornsby’s Sowing 
Machine, and sow this once up and down and then across, so by that 
both corn and meal are nicely divided over the field, and from that I 
generally have a beautiful braird and very good crops.—(Charles 
Littleboy, Straffan, Leinster.) 
About eight years ago I enclosed a piece of old pasture land, and 
converted it into a vegetable garden. The first year the Cabbages 
were destroyed, and large holes eaten in the Potatoes by Wireworm, 
and I dressed the garden thoroughly with lime, salt, and soot, but 
notwithstanding the vegetables were destroyed in the second year 
nearly as badly as before. I then covered the garden with Rape nuts, 
and have had no Wireworm since.—(R. Paver-Cron, Ornham Hall, 
Borouglibridge.) 
The following experiments were tried in consequence of the belief 
often expressed that Wireworms feed so greedily on rape cake that 
they burst. This, however, I did not find to occur in any instauce. 
Through the courtesy of the manager of the Phoenix Oil Mills, 
Liverpool, and of Messrs. Ayre, Waterloo Mills, Hull, I was supplied 
well with the “Indian” Rape cake from the former, and with Black 
Sea Rape cake from the latter firm. These two kinds are both known 
to be serviceable for manure, but I found them somewhat different in 
their action on the Wireworms. 
The Indian, or Kurracliee, cake is formed from Mustard seed. 
This I pounded into small lumps and dust, and mixed it with water, 
and then placed a good supply of healthy Wireworms on it with a 
little bit of turf. For about three days the smell of Mustard was very 
powerful, and the Wireworms would not leave their turf, and those 
that were placed on the Mustard cake, which presumably had still its 
stinging powers, appeared very uneasy. About the fourth day a 
putrescent smell succeeded that of Mustard, and the Wireworms began 
to go into the cake, where they fed (or, at least, I presume they fed, 
as there was nothing else for food) for about a fortnight. They 
seemed all well and thriving until the end of the fortnight, when I 
